Native Vegetation Extent (DPIRD-005): Remnant Vegetation Polygons for Western Australia

June 2026 saw an update where parts of South West WA were excised from this dataset. It contains polygon data mapping the extent of remnant vegetation in Western Australia, originally compiled for the National Land and Water Resource Audit. The data was derived from 1995 LandSat TM imagery and corrected with aerial photography from 1996 to 2020, with updates by the Department of Agriculture until 2020 and a final update in May 2023.

Use Cases

• Monitor changes in native vegetation extent over time based on the mapping for years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2024 for the Swan Coastal Plain.
• Assess land-use impacts on remnant vegetation based on the distinction between intensive and extensive land-use zones.
• Support conservation planning and policy development based on the biogeographic regionalisation (IBRA V 7.1) used for the 2024 updates.
• Conduct historical analysis of vegetation cover based on data originally derived from 1995 satellite imagery.

Strengths

• Provides multi-temporal coverage for the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth-Peel areas for six specific years between 2000 and 2024.
• Data creation involved correction using digital aerial photography (orthophotos) acquired from 1996 to 2020.
• Published under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license, allowing for broad reuse.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description states no further updates are planned, limiting future data freshness.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) Geographic Information Services, with contributions from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER).

Collection Method

Originally derived from 1995 LandSat TM satellite imagery and corrected using digital aerial photography (orthophotos). Later updates incorporated newer mapping.

Time Range

Historical mapping from 1995, with specific extent products for 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2024.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-28; no further updates planned.

Geography

Western Australia, specifically the Swan Coastal Plain, Metropolitan and Peel Region Schemes, and the Katanning, Merredin, and Western Mallee bioregions.